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From: stacy ojano
Sent: Monday, July 19, 2021 12:16 PM
To: Council Testimony COUNTY CLERK
Subject: Fw: Building code J structural review COUNTY OF HAWAIII
RECEIVED
Time 19-4600.
Date JULI 9 2021
Bill 44
Sent from Yahoo Mail for iPhone
On Monday, July 19, 2021, 12:14 PR/1,inay akers <starburstnia(�-pyahoo.com> wrote:
Sent from my iPhone
To: Hawaii County Council
From: Stacy Okano
Stacy's Drafting
Subject: amendment to bill #44 section 5B-1-7
Hello Everyone,
I am asking for All Single Family Residential Project's (R3) and any accessory building to a
residence be exempt from all review from the County of Hawaii Building Department
I am a architectural draftsmen and I have been obtaining permits from our county for about 30 years
now, I have seen many changes through out this time. When I first started, I was able to get a building
permit within the same day, then as administration people changed it went to two to three weeks prior
to the 2005 construction boom,then two to three months during the construction boom, then within the
last seven to eight years someone decided to start structural review of our plans, even if a professional
engineer or architect has stamped it and taken responsibility for it
So now permits can take up to a year. I have submitted plans in Maui, Oahu, Kauai,San Diego
California , Alaska, and Colorado and have not been through what our county has us do. I have heard
that about 90% of all plans turned in to our building department gets rejected, mostly due to structural
review, even if the plan design is over the minimum required design criteria by code .
One example for you is , say we need a total of 10' of wall in a wall that is 40' long and we actually
have 25' of wall shown way over the minimum required,just so happens you may have written 24' on
the chart , your plans will get rejected, so without county doing structural review it would eliminate so
much wasted time back and forth, when the dwelling is already over designed
Another thing is, we have been spending so much extra hours on drawings because with the
structural review, the county plan checkers are never on the same page, nothing is really in black and
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white as to what they want, so we actually have to wait to see who will check out plans then design to
it what that plan checker wants and hope he stays the only plan checker for the project. For example, I
have one project that I have permitted about 5 times within the last 3 years remind you code has not
changed I can take in the same exact plan that was just permitted and it will be reject over something
new. Another thing with the structural review is I believe they misinterpret the design description
within the codes so even if the codes have not changed what they require from us does pretty often
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I was born and raised here, I love my island. I want t on make sire our future generations will have a
chance to make a go of it if they decide to stay here. Everyone doesn't realize how something like this
puts a cap on our economy, especially on areas where that don't depend on tourism, construction is
what holds us up and if permits taking so long our contractors can't build.
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The building department needs to go back to checking what all the other counties departments do, if
height is ok,min. Clearance, fire egress, fire separation, temp glass and etc., and please leave the
structural review to the professional engineers and architects
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Mahalo for your time,
Stacy Ojano
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